New treatment at source approach using combination of microfiltration and nanofiltration for dyeing effluents reuse

Textile effluents are considered among the most polluted wastewaters all over the world. Among different textile processes, dyeing is the operation that produces the most important amounts of chemical pollution. Many studies have been carried out toward the treatment of these hazardous effluents, and a variety of techniques have been applied for this aim. In this work, the effluents coming from different steps of the dyeing cycle were treated following different mixtures of baths using membrane technology. Nanofiltration (NF) experiments were performed for color removal, but membrane fouling still a major limitation. To enhance NF performances, microfiltration (MF) was carried out as pretreatment to NF. The results showed almost above 99 % of color and turbidity removal and also an important decrease in COD, chloride and salts contents with an improvement in the MF and NF stabilized fluxes of different mixtures compared to that corresponding to the dyeing effluent treated separately. In order to accomplish a full reuse cycle, dyeing experiments were performed using the combined system (MF/NF) permeates. Results were evaluated regarding total color difference between samples and a standard test done with fresh water.